Ukraine blockaded

sir – The lack of strategic awareness of the United Nations and Nato is unconscionable.

Russian troops are within 20 miles of Odesa, Ukraine’s largest outlet to the oceans of the world. If there is no naval and military intervention and this port city falls, there will be two painfully obvious consequences: Ukraine will be starved of income and become unviable; and Russia will sequestrate its huge stock of grain and sell it to fund its militaristic activities.

It is not too late to act, but it will be very soon.

Tony Jones

London SW7

sir – Russia’s offensive in Ukraine may be grinding ahead very slowly, but its assault on the economies of the rest of the world is gathering pace.

Vladimir Putin’s stranglehold on much of the world’s energy, food and fertiliser will have dire consequences for the poorest countries, and his propaganda machine will undoubtedly succeed in laying blame on the West.

Surely it is time for the democracies of the world to end his grip on the Black Sea at least, by any means possible, including a military coalition if necessary. The short-term risks from a Russian backlash are obvious, but the long-term risks for all of us, not least through increased economic unrest and population movement, make it imperative that action is taken.

The major stumbling block is that such a move would need leadership of the highest order, and it is hard to see where this would come from – certainly not from the UN or the EU.

Yet, without concerted action, whatever happens in Ukraine, Mr Putin and his terrorist state will win the wider war and take pleasure in watching the West disintegrate.

Gp Capt Ron Powell (retd)

Barry Island, Glamorgan

sir – Would President Emmanuel Macron be so conciliatory if Mr Putin had invaded France, flattened French cities, killed thousands of French citizens and injured and starved thousands more (“Macron: Moscow must not be ‘humiliated’”, report, June 5)? Peter Amey

Hoveton, Norfolk